Growing the sport of ultimate frisbee in West Michigan

It's a little bit football, a little bit soccer and basketball. It's ultimate frisbee and it's making some noise in West Michigan.

Author:
Eric Lloyd

Published:
11:14 PM EDT July 12, 2017

Updated:
6:18 AM EDT July 13, 2017

It's a little bit football, a little bit soccer and basketball. It's ultimate frisbee and it's making some noise in West Michigan.

"A lot of times when we mention it, people are like, 'Oh is that Frisbee golf?' No that’s a different sport but that’s also pretty cool," says Zig Zag Ultimate Club Director Mike "Zaags" Zaagman.

When you watch it played, there’s no confusing ultimate Frisbee. You may not know what is going on but it looks like a ton of fun and the guy they call "Zaags" is trying to make it the best new sport in the area.

"When I say brand new, it’s brand new to West Michigan but nationwide it’s huge," says Zaags, "When we go to Chicago there’s like 30 teams. When we go to Cincinnati there’s so many teams and then in West Michigan, we’re the only team out of Grand Rapids and there should be so many more teams."

Essentially, somebody took the hobby of playing catch with a Frisbee and made it a structured sport. There’s positions, official routes and a scoreboard.

"It’s played 7-on-7, usually a football sized field but a little smaller," says Zaags, "It’s self-officiated and non-contact and then from there you’re trying to work the disc to the endzone you can throw in any direction forward backwards and to the sides just have to stay in bounds and when you catch it in the endzone it’s a score."

Five years ago, Zaags started the Grand Rapids White Lightning, the high school aged team. Just a month or so ago, he started the Sparks, a youth team ages 9 to 13. If you are building any sport, you need to hook kids young and turn it in to a lifetime sport. You can tell by his enthusiasm, Zaags is dedicated to the sport, dedicated to growing it and making it as mainstream as possible.

"Sometimes people are like, 'Oh, I want to keep this to myself because it’s so cool' but, no, spread the word, all we want to do is get more people out here more people throwing the disc, catching the Frisbee," says Zaags.